Well, 2014 starts in a few weeks, and local leaders along the line remain in the dark about whether the project is moving forward.

“I haven't heard anything,” Freeport Mayor Jim Gitz said. He's worried that funding for the train could get caught up in budgetary debates on Capitol Hill.

“It would be a shame if the expansion of rail service into northern and northwest Illinois were to become the victim of budgetary forces or the forthcoming elections.”

Gitz, a supporter of public transport, doesn't expect to see Amtrak trains here until 2015. If train service doesn't begin by 2016, he said, it may never happen: “The Republican House has no inclination to fund infrastructure. They don't believe in investing in America.

“If they don't want to support highways and bridges, you can imagine where trains rank. How many more lanes do we want to build on I-90?”

Sen. Steve Stadelman, D-Rockford, said the state's negotiations with the Canadian National Railway over use of their tracks “are agonizingly slow. The governor says he's disappointed that the cost has skyrocketed. Conversations are taking place now, revisiting the issue, determining the future of Amtrak service.”

The state estimated infrastructure upgrades at $60 million for the southern route through Genoa. Stadelman declined to say how much the cost has risen.

“This service is still going to happen, it's just taking longer than it should.”

Meanwhile, the city of Rockford moves forward on its plan to build a $12 million train and bus station at South Main Street and Kent Creek. Quinn came to Tinker Swiss Cottage on Jan. 17, 2012, to pledge $3 million to start the station project; he promised then that trains would be rolling by 2014.

“The city and Rockford Mass Transit District will be announcing their architectural team that will help design the downtown station soon, hopefully right after Thanksgiving,” said Steve Ernst, executive director of the Rockford Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

“It has just been a difficult and lengthy process. ... Getting signed contracts out of Springfield has seemed to take an eternity.”

Ernst hasn't heard anything new on the route upgrades since the summer.

“As far as I know the state and the CN still have not reached agreement. But seeing as they both signed a nondisclosure agreement for the negotiating period, IDOT has not been able to divulge how close (or how far apart) they are. But given the length of time, I have to believe that they still are far apart.”

Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, said he asked IDOT last week for a complete report on the status of the Amtrak route through Rockford. As of Monday, he didn't have it.

“There's not a lot new to report,” he said. “At this point, I've been told that IDOT is close to an agreement (with CN) where a contract can be worked out. Now, what 'close to' means, we don't have a definition yet.”